"Japan's Emperor to visit World War II battlefield in Pacific island nation of Palau"

Ripped From The Headlines:

TOKYO, April 8 [2015] (Reuters) - Japanese Emperor Akihito arrived on Wednesday at the island nation of Palau where he will visit a World War II battlefield, the latest journey in his efforts to soothe the wounds of a conflict that haunts Asia 70 years after its end.

Some 10,000 Japanese defenders, fighting in the name of Emperor Akihito's father, Emperor Hirohito, died in a two-month battle in 1944 on Palau's tiny Peleliu island along with about 1,600 American troops. Unaware Japan had surrendered on Aug 15, 1945, 34 Japanese soldiers hid in the jungle until April 1947. "We believe we must never forget that those beautiful islands in the Pacific Ocean have such a tragic history," Kyodo news agency quoted Emperor Akihito, 81, as saying before his departure.

So it was Palau where the "fanatic hold-outs on an island yrs. after the shooting stopped" who inspired so much imaginative fiction were holed up. Now we know the rest of the story.